مصوع

Arabic

Etymology

From Tigre and Tigrinya ምጽዋዕ (məṣəwwaʿ), Ge'ez ምጽዋዕ (məṣəwwaʿ), attested for a body of water in front of its coast, derived by the local tradition from ጸውዐ (ṣäwwəʿä, “to call”) common to all three languages, referring to the fact that the city’s historical centre lies on the outer one of the two offshore islands, being removed from either the mainland and the other island by less than a kilometre, which allowed for making oneself intelligible there by shouting into the sea.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mu.sˤaw.waʕ/

Proper noun

مُصَوَّع • (muṣawwaʕ) f

1. Massawa (a port city in Eritrea; west of the Dahlak Archipelago).

   Synonym: (formerly) بَاضِع (bāḍiʕ)

Declension

Declension of noun مُصَوَّع (muṣawwaʕ)

Singular	basic singular diptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	—	مُصَوَّع muṣawwaʕ	—
Nominative	—	مُصَوَّعُ muṣawwaʕu	—
Accusative	—	مُصَوَّعَ muṣawwaʕa	—
Genitive	—	مُصَوَّعَ muṣawwaʕa	—

References

• Morin, Didier (2012) “Arabic and Cushitic Toponymy: One Coast with Two Maps”, in Northeast African Studies‎^[1], volume 12, number 1, Michigan State University Press, →DOI, pages 223–224
• “ምጽዋዕ”, in Ancient Ethiopic TraCES Corpus (of Beta maṣāḥǝft), Hamburg, 2014–2019, contains a 15^th century quotation for Geʿez from Tedros Abraha, editor (2015), Gädlä Abunä Yonas Zä-Bur: Eritrean saint of the 15th century / Ge'ez text edited and translated (Patrologia Orientalis; 236 (53.2)), Brepols, →ISBN, page 82 (378) lines 27 seqq. where it is named a “great sea”.